Canada’s Green 30 companies for 2012

The Green 30 is based on how employees perceive their employer’s environmental efforts. We asked each organization that made the 2012 list, compiled by Aon Hewitt, to highlight some of the key programs and practices that earned them high marks. Here are their contributions:

• Recycling centres on every floor deal with everything from pens and batteries to media and IT equipment; and new retrofits include sensor lighting and hands free taps and urinals.

• Co-operators Life continues to lead the Regina Business Sustainability program where local businesses get together monthly to share and educate sustainability best practices within each of their businesses

• As part of a waste reduction program, newspapers and bottled water are not automatically delivered to every guest room.

• Every hotel has a green team to initiate new environmental projects; highlights include a solar-heating system at the Delta Trois-Rivières, Que., the 100 per cent carbon-neutral Delta Chelsea in Toronto, and the “living green roof” at the Delta Guelph.

• More than 80 employees have acquired the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-accredited professional designation, helping them design and construct the next generation of green-friendly buildings.

• By using a 3D modelling system, engineers are able to virtually construct projects before the shovel hits the ground, reducing change orders and construction waste.

• Three LEED-certified professionals are on staff to advise on the greenest possible building practices.

• More than 75 per cent of Canadian properties are certified BOMA BESt (Building Owners and Managers Association’s Building Environmental Standards), Canada’s leading environmental certification program for commercial buildings.

• Discourages the use of disposable coffee cups, and promotes teleconferencing and waste reduction. THE METHODOLOGY: The Green 30 is based on employee opinion data collected as part of Aon Hewitt’s annual Best Employers in Canada study and Best Small & Medium Employers study. More than 112,000 employees at more than 250 organizations participated in the 2012 edition of these studies. To be eligible, organizations must have been in business for at least three years and have 50 or more employees.

Read more about what eco-friendly lengths the companies go to in Kate Lunau’s Maclean’s story.

* An earlier version of this article stated that Lush sources all of its electricity from green-energy provider Bullfrog Power. In fact, Lush sources electricity for its Canadian manufacturing and distribution facilities from Bullfrog Power.

This might be somewhat true, however they are trying to do more good than bad. If nothing else I think it’s a step in the right direction. It would be a lot easier for these companies to ignore the environment in their work, but to see them attempting to improve the environment is great. Shouldn’t we give them some credit for that? Many heating contractors in markham have been looking for new ways to improve energy efficient costs.

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